(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor array panel and a liquid crystal display including the panel.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is one of the most widely used flat panel displays. An LCD includes two panels provided with field-generating electrodes such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode and a liquid crystal (LC) layer interposed therebetween. The LCD displays images by applying voltages to the field-generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the LC layer, which determines orientations of LC molecules in the LC layer to adjust polarization of incident light.
Among the LCDs, a vertical alignment (VA) mode LCD, which aligns LC molecules such that the long axes of the LC molecules are perpendicular to the panels in the absence of electric field, is popular because of its high contrast ratio and wide reference viewing angle.
The wide viewing angle of the VA mode LCD can be realized by cutouts in the field-generating electrodes and protrusions on the field-generating electrodes. Since the cutouts and the protrusions can determine the tilt directions of the LC molecules, the tilt directions can be distributed into several directions by using the cutouts and the protrusions such that the reference viewing angle is widened.
However, the VA mode LCD has poor lateral visibility as compared with front visibility.
In addition, it is required to realize a pixel structure that has a maximum aperture ratio and a good resistance against pixel defects that can be generated during the manufacturing process.